King of good times

What makes Alain Ducasse the most famous chef in the world? Rashmi Uday Singh looks for answers.

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Rashmi Uday Singh

October 19, 2009

ISSUE DATE: November 2, 2009

UPDATED: October 29, 2009 11:46 IST

Haute happening news...what's Ganpati doing in the hands of the world's most famous chef? The lovable elephant god is showering blessings on the globally-celebrated 53-yearold Alain Ducasse as he launches his cutting edge cooking school, Le Ecole de Cuisine, in Paris. Having dominated the world's culinary map with his Michelin-starred restaurants, books and professional school for chefs, the legendary chef is now all set to teach you and me. Anyone can walk in and take a lesson. Just before the launch, all the guests got a quick lesson in cooking in the gleaming new kitchens. And then we got a taste of our own cooking. Light as air, yet dense with crunchy macarons, aubergine caviar enlivened with a spark of green pepper, salmon plump with nori; there are no Indian flavours here, yet. But Ducasse enjoys Indian curries and so, on behalf of India, I present him with a spice blend especially prepared for him by our genius chef Ananda Solomon. Any plans to open a similar school in Mumbai? "Not yet," says this almost shy chef and then lapses into French.

Ducasse's new school offers cooking lessons at multiple levels. Nine themes in cuisine and pastry are taught in four workshop kitchens (set up with equipment which is also usable in the home). A wine cellar (for wine education), a meeting room and a shop are built around a patio which lets in daylight and cheer. When in Paris, this is definitely one place to go to if you want to have your cake and eat it too. I have been patiently nibbling my way to Ducasse through London, Paris and Monte Carlo for many, many years now. Still have to get to New York and Tokyo. But it is to Monte Carlo that I would go back again. And again.

What can you say (which has not already been said) about a guy who holds Michelin stars in three countries and is a superstar in every sense of the word, with 15 Michelin stars and 27 restaurants. I eat at Ducasse's restaurants and, almost always, the meal is like a grand show (with prices to match).

A serving of farm-raised rabbit with chestnut puree, apple and celery root

It's a starry, glamorous experience in every sense of the term; luxury drips through the 10,000 Swarovski pendants which dangle in the restaurant instead of chandeliers. The hushed elegance coddles and pampers, though it can also get a bit daunting sometimes.

Clementine-coloured tablecloths and unique Corian cream-and-orange chairs with pull-out trays (for business meetings or ladies handbags?) weave their glamour here. As do the deft little touches, like a cart of fresh herbs kept to scent the fingerbowls.

Alain Ducasse teaching the art of cooking

Chef Christophe Moret's masterpieces are resolutely contemporary French cuisine with a strong emphasis on authenticity. Today, I start with an amuse bouche of a langoustine in lemon cream with Iranian caviar.

Plenty follows: Breton lobster in apple, quince and spiced wine; lobster in spiced wine with quince; there's saddle of lamb with sauted artichokes and, through it all, it is the glamour and flamboyance of taste and presentation that dazzles. The finale is the rum baba Monte-Carlo.GOD'S IN LONDON? Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, Park Lane, London

The restaurant at the Dorchester

Here reality is more luxurious than fantasy. "God has come to London," swooned some critics. "The prices are insane," carped others when Ducasse set up shop at London's legendary Dorchester Hotel. The Patrick Jouin design with a cloud, surrounded by a luminescent oval curtain, is one of the highlights of the restaurant, as are the Herms china and Saint Louis crystal glimmer. But for me, the magic lies in the humorous touch of the plates with the cleverly hidden frog under the rose decoration- a homage to the English garden. Head chef Jocelyn Herland's concise and classic French-driven menu is high on technique. The delicate soft royale of greens is a glorious medley of vegetables.

Lady in Red, a mouthwatering dessert creation of the chef

The circle of freshness enlarges to enclose a Mediterranean salad of lobster. Then, the notes begin to change as coco curry condiments tango mysteriously with a tapioca pearl risotto and fresh langoustines roasted to perfection. Finally, it is the sheer sinful, melting rich notes of the chocolate gianduja, on the mignardise trolley that ensure that the meal which seemed to be starting off like a healthy spa meal ends as a sinful, calorific over-the-top feast.

Le Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffel tower in Paris offers great views and a gastronomical treat

The most delicious way of absorbing Paris? Glide up the slim silhouette towering 1063 ft into the Parisian sky, the Eiffel Tower. Soaring up the slanted structure in a private glass lift is the beginning of a memory I will cherish forever. Restaurant Jules Verne, that's embedded in the tower, has always attracted the tourist but served lousy food. Thankfully, two years ago, Ducasse made a bid for it. Today, table bookings are tough to come by as locals and tourists flock in-for the thrill as much as the food. This is a fairly compact, irregularly shaped restaurant which designer Patrick Jouin has given a neo-futuristic look in shades of brown.

The view is incomparable and, happily, the generous portions of lobster with celery root and black truffle, and fricassee of Bresse chicken with crayfish are memorable.

For dessert, the kitchen reinterprets French classics. The sauces and pastries are prepared in a kitchen below the Champ de Mars before being whisked up the elevator to the kitchen, which is overseen by young chef Pascal Fraud. This is definitely a landmark Paris experience that boasts a flavour of its own.PARADISE FOUND? Le Louis XV, Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo

Each diner at Le Louis XV uses more than 50 pieces of cutlery, china and glassware

What an amazing parade of contrasts! 'Essential cuisine' served amid flamboyant luxury that preens in a Versailles-style dining room swathed in light and gold, with priceless ceiling frescos and art. In Ducasse's Le Louis XV, located in the luxury-laden Hotel de Paris in glamorous Monte Carlo, each diner uses more than 50 pieces of cutlery, china and glassware and has more than 40 persons at his service. In the heart of the kitchen stands a tiny dining room with a bank of six TV screens, which is used by Ducasse to entertain guests when he's in town. That's not all: the cellar stocks more than 400,000 bottles of 950 different wines. In contrast to the flamboyance, Ducasse serves up 'essential' Mediterranean cuisine.

Here he distills the region's bounteous beauty and freshness of the sea and earth-with fruits, vegetables and iodine rich rock fish. Chef Frank Cerruti serves seasonal menus and uses just two or three seasonal Mediterranean ingredients in each dish. Be it the intense flavours and colours of the coloured tomatoes, buratta and basil pesto or the magically-textured stuffed zucchini flowers, I've never had a more delicate, translucent big ravioli plump with chanterelle mushrooms and sauted spinach. What an amazing rush of freshness in the Grande salad Riviera, the fruit and mascarpone sorbet.

My most memorable vegetarian experience ever ended with a fabulous finale of the signature Le Louis XV au croustillant de pralin. Set like a gold bar, it implodes with dense chocolate.

It is in this hotel that Alain Ducasse began as a head chef more than 20 years ago when he took up the challenge to earn three stars. In the midst of all this excess, it is here that I get high on the 'essential' flavours, tastes and aromas that a truly great chef reveals knowing that the listener cannot create them. And that, for me, is the main reason that Ducasse is a superstar.